The court holds that the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act (BGEPA) does not violate the Free Exercise or Establishment Clauses of the U.S. Constitution and, therefore, affirmed an individual's conviction for possessing eagle feathers without a permit. The BGEPA prohibits the taking or possession ...

The court holds that the take provision of the Endangered Species Act (ESA), as applied to landowners, does not violate the U.S. Commerce Clause. After purchasing property, the landowners sought to develop it, but were prevented from doing so because of the restrictions placed on the land under the ...

The court holds that the Endangered Species Act's (ESA's) application to private lands in order to protect an endangered species that lives entirely within one state does not violate the U.S. Commerce Clause. The court first holds that the regulated activity in question—construction of a housing d...

The court holds that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) acted in an arbitrary and capricious manner by issuing incidental take statements imposing terms and conditions on grazing permits sought by a cattle growers' association where there was either no evidence that the endangered species exis...

The Ninth Circuit upheld the Secretary of Commerce's decision to allocate a portion of the U.S. harvest of Pacific whiting to the Makah Indian Tribe. Because the "best available scientific information" supports a sliding scale method of allocation, the National Marine Fisheries Service's (NMFS') rel...

A district court enjoined and vacated a final U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) rule that reduced protection afforded to the gray wolf under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) by changing its status from "endangered" to "threatened" in some regions. The FWS' interpretation of "significant portion o...

The court affirmed the dismissal of a home builder association's claims that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) violated the Endangered Species Act (ESA) and the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) in its promulgation of survey protocols to detect the endangered quino checkerspot butterfly in s...

The court holds that National Oceanic and Atmospheric Adminstration (NOAA) Fisheries erred when it denied a fishing vessel's application for an Aleutian Islands brown king crab endorsement under the license limitation program for the Bearing Sea and Aleutian Islands groundfish and crab fisheries. Th...

The court dismisses as moot an animal advocacy group's claims against the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) for denying their petition to list the trumpeter swan in Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming as endangered or threatened and for authorizing the limited take of the swans during the 2001 and 2002 h...

A court dismisses an environmental group's Endangered Species Act (ESA) and National Environmental Policy Act claims against the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries concerning logging activity on private lands in Humboldt County, California, a...